The Opposition – Aston Villa
After Tim Sherwood steered them away from relegation and took them to an FA Cup final last season, things quickly took a nosedive for the Villans. Just the one league victory, away to Bournemouth on the opening day, has left them propping up the table after 12 games, 5 points from safety. Despite his well-documented (mostly by himself) win ratio at Spurs, Sherwood was sacked last month, and replaced by Frenchman Remi Garde.
The former Lyon manager has reportedly banned French being spoken at the training ground, and has so far overseen just the one game, a 0-0 draw against Manchester City at Villa Park. Perhaps unsurprisingly, any Villa resurgence will be built on solid foundations, so expect a side that’s difficult to break down on Saturday.
Perhaps part of Villa’s problem was their summer business, with multiple incomings, mainly from overseas. Add that to the significant losses of Benteke and Delph, and it’s no real surprise to see them struggling.
Scott Sinclair seems to have rejuvenated himself after extricating himself from the Manchester City bench, whilst Rudy Gestede is a useful option. And of course, Gabby Agbonlahor always seems to cause us problems.
What the managers say
Roberto Martinez – “I don’t think it’s been difficult at all to prepare. I went to watch their (Aston Villa) game against Manchester City and Villa were very impressive.
“The new manager has come in with a very clear idea of the way he wants to see them play.
“Remi has good experience from the British game from his time as a player, and if you follow his teams in France and the success he had with Lyon, you are going to see a team based on attacking football.
“The togetherness and the fighting spirit they had against City is a really good starting point of this new chapter in his career.
“In the league it is impossible to set a target now,” he added. “Our only objective at the moment is to win the next game. At the moment I feel we can compete against anyone in the league, I don’t think we are inferior to anyone on our day and at our best.
“The only task we need to achieve is to be at our very best whenever we are on the football pitch.
“It seems like an eternity since our last home game against Sunderland and it is important against Villa that we replicate our attacking threat that we had on that day. On top of that, we want to be even stronger in our defensive duties as a team.”
Remi Garde – “For the last five/six seasons they’ve been doing well and they’re full of confidence. The manager has been working for three years with this team and they have got strong players – they played Europa league last season.
“This season they are focussed on the premier league. They’ve had a good start. I’ve watched a few games and hopefully they are not invincible. Maybe we can create a surprise.
“This is a team who like to pass, they like to keep the ball, and they like to play with width on the pitch. It’s not direct play.
“They play on the counter-attack have good passers like Barry and Barkley and the speed of Lukaku and Deulofeu, of course, a lot of quality players.
“We’re going to try and give them some problems; I’ve watched two Everton games and am aware of the team we are playing against. My staff have watched them a lot too. I do the job as conscientiously as I can. I know Everton well.”
Team News
Tyias Browning and Brendan Galloway will continue to be assed, but Tom Cleverley is set to return.
A late decision will be made on Leighton Baines, but Phil Jagielka, Tony Hibbert and Bryan Oviedo remain absent.
Previous Meetings
Everton comfortably dispatched Aston Villa at Goodison park 3-0 last season, with goals from Jagielka, Lukaku and Coleman.
Kevin Mirallas scored a sublime free-kick as the blues came from behind to win 2-1 in February 2014.
Villa were also beaten at Goodison in the Toffee’s run to the FA Cup final in 2009.
Expected Starting XI – (4-2-3-1) – Howard; Coleman, Stones, Funes Mori, Galloway; McCarthy, Barry; Deulofeu, Barkley, Kone; Lukaku
